Chapter 1698 The Persian Gulf Problem

According to Adolf's request, the Red Sea route would no longer be monopolized by Britain, France, and East African countries; Germany and Italy would also be able to participate.

This still couldn't fully satisfy Adolf's ambitions, but it was the limit that Britain and France could accept at the moment, so Chamberlain could only grit his teeth and back down again.

Ultimately, the two men determined that Germany would have three bases along the Red Sea route.

Next came negotiations regarding Persia and Kuwait, areas Chamberlain still wanted to try to influence.

“Prime Minister Adolf, your country has effectively extended its sphere of influence to the Persian Gulf coast through the Ottoman Empire. At this point, Kuwait is no longer a necessary option for your country.”

"Therefore, we cannot give up Kuwait completely. Instead, we can do what we did before and exchange it for economic benefits, allowing German capital to enter the country."

"But it is impossible to build a military base or station troops there."

Germany and the Ottoman Empire had long coveted Kuwait, but an event in 1938 directly led to Germany's increased focus on Kuwait.

On February 22, 1938, the Kuwait Oil Company, a joint venture between Anglo-Polish Oil Company and Gulf Oil Company, drilled its first oil well in the Burgham region of Kuwait.

This is the famous Burgan oil field from the previous life, whose total oil reserves accounted for more than 70% of Kuwait's in the previous life. This oil field has not yet been officially exploited, so its total reserves may exceed 100 billion barrels.

Although Germany was unaware of the enormous potential of Kuwait's oil resources, it was clear that for a country like Germany, which was extremely poor in oil and gas resources, even a small amount was still valuable.

Adolf stated bluntly, "We can make concessions, but German companies must be allowed to invest in Kuwait's oil."

“No problem, Prime Minister Adolf, I can agree to this.” Chamberlain did not refuse.

Chamberlain agreed so readily because he thought that Germany would soon go to war with the Soviet Union, and at that time Germany would not have much time to devote to Kuwait.

Kuwait's oil has only just been discovered, and even Britain is unclear about its exact reserves and potential. Large-scale exploitation of Kuwait's oil resources will be impossible without several years of stable investment.

By then, both Germany and the Soviet Union will likely be severely weakened, and Britain could easily turn its back on Germany and take back everything that Germany had extorted from it.

Adolf could vaguely guess Chamberlain's ulterior motives, but his thoughts differed from Chamberlain's, so he left it aside for the time being.

Adolf is already quite satisfied with being able to directly obtain oil exploration rights in Kuwait.

After all, in Adolf's view, Kuwait had little value other than oil. Previously, the only thing that Germany should pay attention to about Kuwait was its status as a Persian Gulf coastal region.

However, as Chamberlain previously stated, the Ottoman Empire already had territory along the Persian Gulf coast, so Kuwait was not irreplaceable for Germany.

Moreover, even if Kuwait were under German control, its military role would be quite limited, since Britain's military support in the Persian Gulf was the island nation of Bahrain.

With the British navy in Bahrain, it was entirely possible to block Germany and the Ottoman Empire from accessing the sea via the Persian Gulf.

Similarly, the naval power of East Africa in the Persian Gulf also had an absolute suppressive capability against Germany and the Ottoman Empire.

Based on the current ranking of naval strength and deterrence capabilities in the Persian Gulf region, East Africa undoubtedly ranks first, followed by Britain, then Persia, Oman, and finally the Ottoman Empire.

This situation is also related to the special circumstances and geographical environment of the Persian Gulf. It is true that the Ottoman Empire had Germany backing it, but Persia also had Britain and East Africa behind it, and Oman was a clear junior partner of East Africa in the region.

Moreover, while the Persian Gulf was indeed important to the Ottoman Empire, it must be acknowledged that the Ottoman Empire's territories along the Persian Gulf, namely the coast of Iraq, were themselves remote areas of the Ottoman Empire.

The core territory of the Ottoman Empire was the Anatolian Peninsula, while Iraq was more like a tentacle that the Ottoman Empire controlled, extending deep into the Persian Gulf.

Moreover, Iraq is predominantly inhabited by Arabs, followed by Kurds, and finally Ottomans, or Turks.

Therefore, the Ottoman Empire's control over Iraq itself contained enormous hidden dangers.

Once the Ottoman Empire showed signs of decline, the Iraqis would certainly not have accepted Ottoman rule so easily.

At the same time, although the Ottoman Empire had developed relatively steadily in recent years, its strength was not enough to support its comprehensive national power to reach the level of a great power.

This has made the Ottoman Empire's own naval power somewhat stretched thin, and now the Ottoman navy is finding it somewhat inadequate just to be responsible for the security of the Black Sea and the Black Sea Straits.

Therefore, diverting its already weak naval resources to the Persian Gulf was not cost-effective for the Ottoman Empire, even with German assistance.

The geographical conditions of the Ottoman Empire in the Persian Gulf determined that no matter how much resources the Ottoman Empire invested, it would be difficult to make a difference, and it was simply impossible for the Ottoman Empire to break through the blockade of the Persian Gulf by Britain and East Africa through its own naval power.

In comparison, the Persian navy in the Persian Gulf was actually more powerful, after all, the name of the Persian Gulf itself reveals the long-standing connection between Persia and this sea area.

The Persian Gulf was the core of Persia's absolute maritime interests, so the Persian government was more willing to invest in the region militarily than the Ottoman Empire.

Moreover, Persia was the second strongest power in the Middle East, second only to the Ottoman Empire in strength, so it was perfectly reasonable for Persia's naval power in the Persian Gulf to surpass that of the Ottoman Empire.

Finally, there is Oman. Oman has now been completely incorporated into East Africa. In addition, Oman itself is a relatively stable country in the Arab world, so its development in recent years, while not particularly good, has been relatively peaceful.

Moreover, although Oman is a small country, it has historically been a dominant power in the Indian Ocean and has always valued its maritime interests.

Even though it has declined, Oman still invests heavily in its navy, and through its ties with East Africa, it has also imported a number of relatively modern naval vessels and weapons from the region.

In order to cooperate with East Africa in maintaining its interests in the Persian Gulf region, Oman's location is very important, after all, it is located at the choke point between the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean—the western side of the Strait of Hormuz.

The eastern side of the Strait of Hormuz is within Britain's sphere of influence, so East Africa also intends to support Oman's naval strength in order to enhance East Africa's control over the Persian Gulf.

This is the basic situation in the Persian Gulf region now.

Both Germany and the Ottoman Empire were well aware of the situation in the Persian Gulf, so they primarily relied on land-based strategies to gradually advance their deployments in the region.

For example, in the development of Kuwait's oil resources, Germany could completely avoid going by sea and instead build corresponding oil pipelines for transportation, or transport them via the Berlin-Baghdad railway.

Of course, this is on the premise that Germany ensures that the subsequent development of the war in Europe does not get out of its control.

If Germany were to lose the war, all the things Germany has extorted from Britain and France would ultimately be for naught.

After discussing Kuwait, the last place to go was Persia. At this point, Chamberlain's pressure suddenly decreased considerably.

"Prime Minister Adolf, if Germany wants to enter Persia, we will naturally not object, but the situation in Persia is more complicated than the regions we have discussed before."

"After the World War, Persia was actually invaded by East Africa, especially in the north of Persia. My words might not be as effective as those of East Africa."

"If Germany wants to enter Persia, it must first deal with the East Africans."

If, a decade or so ago, East Africa took advantage of Britain's extreme weakness after the war to invade Persia, making Britain grit its teeth in hatred, then now, Chamberlain's feelings are quite the opposite.

Fortunately, East Africa accepted the sphere of influence that Tsarist Russia had previously held in Persia.

The direct benefit this brought to Britain was that it eliminated the defensive pressure Britain faced on the Soviet Union in Persia. Now that Germany wanted to enter Persia, East Africa, which was within the Persian sphere of influence, once again served to draw fire.

This was actually one of the predictions made by British politicians after World War I that East Africa's entry into Persia would lead to geopolitical changes.

Without a doubt, Britain's core diplomatic strategy was to sow discord. So at the time, British politicians hoped to see East Africa, the Soviet Union, and Germany clash over the Persian issue in the future. In retrospect, this prediction was undoubtedly correct.

Chamberlain's mention of East Africa immediately turned Adolf's previously cheerful expression cold.

It is clear that Adolf's feelings toward this East African country were very complicated, and of course, he felt more jealousy, envy and resentment.

Not to mention that the East African country itself was not well-liked by Adolf, Germany's development in the Middle East in recent years has been under tremendous pressure from East Africa.

Germany viewed East Africa's expansion in the Middle East, especially in the Persian Gulf region, as a complete theft of the fruits of Germany's victory in World War I.

After all, East Africa's large-scale invasion of Persia happened during World War I, and in the more than ten years after the war, it continued to consolidate and erode the local land and market.

Many Germans believe that if East Africa had not existed, those lands and markets would have been German spoils of war after World War I.

Germans with this idea have clearly overlooked the enormous role East Africa played for Germany in World War I. Admittedly, East Africa unscrupulously took advantage of the war to gain a great deal of benefits from Germany.

However, without East Africa, Germany would not have been able to end the war with the dignity of a victor, and its fate would certainly not have been much better than the war in the previous life.

However, the Germans were ungrateful. They only saw how much East Africa had profited during World War I, and thus became extremely envious. Ultimately, due to the heavy price they paid in World War I, their gains from East Africa became even more unbalanced.

This was how Adolf viewed East Africa, and this idea was etched into his mind like a steel stamp by the end of World War I.

At the time, Adolf was just a German corporal on the front lines, but his thought process was different from that of ordinary people; he was an extremely fanatical warmonger.

Therefore, when Germany declared the end of the war, Adolf did not feel happy about the end of the war, but felt that he and Germany had been seriously betrayed. An important factor in Germany's ability to stop the war was the mediation of East Africa between the Central Powers and the Allied Powers.

Therefore, East Africa naturally became the target of Adolf's resentment. In his view, East Africa did not want to see Germany win the war and was afraid that Germany would become stronger and more powerful in Europe.

If we were to consider this today, Adolf's thinking would be nine-tenths correct.

During World War I, East Africa truly did everything it could for Germany! After all, without East Africa's mediation, how could Germany have ended up with dignity? At that time, American troops had already landed in Europe. Unless East Africa also personally intervened and participated in the war to help Germany, Germany had no chance of winning.

However, East Africa was clearly not willing to risk its life for Germany's ambitions. In addition, East Africa had already taken advantage of the situation overseas and needed time to digest these gains. Therefore, East Africa was definitely unwilling to join the war.

These German traitors, these mixed-race scum! Adolf cursed East Africa in his heart.

However, outwardly he told Prime Minister Chamberlain, "Regarding the East African issue, we will naturally engage with East Africa. As long as Britain does not obstruct our corresponding actions in Persia, that will be fine."

Prime Minister Chamberlain expressed some regret about this, as he had hoped to see Germany and East Africa turn against each other, but unfortunately, that opportunity was no longer available.

Britain absolutely does not want Germany and East Africa to be mixed up. Otherwise, if a united German alliance were to emerge in the world, Britain would not be able to sleep at night. At that time, Britain might even be able to put aside its prejudices with the Soviet Union and join forces with the United States and other countries to form an "anti-German alliance".

Even if the German states were to unite, the current strength of Germany and East Africa has already caused Britain to suffer huge losses.

Germany's rise in Europe deprived Britain of its former ease on the European continent, while East Africa began to encroach on Britain's overseas interests outside Europe.

It can be said that the rise of Germany and East Africa was achieved by seizing resources from Britain.

For example, in East Africa, his appearance directly shattered Britain's strategic dream of entering this "virgin land" of Africa at the end of the last century, and Britain was severely beaten by East Africa.

In the 20th century, East Africa seized a large portion of Britain's overseas markets in South America and the Indian Ocean through World War I.

At the same time, the rise of East Africa and Germany is itself a major blow to the English-speaking world. Under the strong intervention of these two countries, the status of English in the international community has declined significantly.

English itself has been an important tool for Britain to influence the world, export its ideology, and interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

Furthermore, the promotion of English abroad is a huge chain of interests involving overseas trade, the development of science and technology and education in Britain, and attracting global talent. As the "big brother" of the English-speaking world today, Britain feels the decline of English more directly than any other English-speaking country in the world.

Because under the dominant English discourse, Britain is now the biggest beneficiary.

(End of this chapter)